FROM THIS EPISODE

Tomorrow, LA's elected school board will vote on whether to block an important pathway to a better future for 300,000 people. Veterans, laid-off workers, immigrant parents and prospective citizens will need other ways to make progress in the LA environment. Will the board abolish adult education? Also, we handicap the race to take ownership of the Los Angeles Dodgers — parking lots included. On our rebroadcast of today's To the Point, is Apple facing the music?

Banner image of students sitting in their English as a Second Language classroom by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

A program supporters call part of the "fabric of Los Angeles" will be on the chopping block at tomorrow's meeting of the Los Angeles School Board. It's a program that goes back to 1887, has provided LA with skilled workers since the post-World War II economic boom, and shows immigrant parents how to help their kids do their homework. But Superintendent John Deasy says he needs all $200 million to help fill the gap in his core programs in K-12 education.

All of Los Angeles knows that the Dodgers are up for sale, and the first round of bidding is over. The first week of this month, prospective owners who made the cut got tours of the Stadium and Chavez Ravine, and several paid visits to Magic Johnson. One of the bidders is Peter O'Malley, who sold the Dodgers to News Corp, which sold it to the team's current owner. Frank McCourt, who bought the controlling interest for some $430 million in 2004, is reported to have turned down a bid to sell for $1.2 billion.

Last year it was Wired magazine, reporting on allegedly inhumane working conditions at Foxconn, which makes iPads and iPhones for Apple at two factories in China. But it was two stories last month in the New York Times, and a broadcast on public radio's This American Life that apparently led 250,000 customers to turn in complaints last week to the world's most valuable company. Today, Apple stock reached an all-time high of more than $500 a share as the company announced an independent audit of working conditions at Chinese subcontractors that make 90 percent of its products. How bad are working conditions? Do consumers care enough to change their buying habits?

NOTE: After this To the Point discussion aired, This American Life discovered that its program, Mr. Daisey Goes to the Apple Factory, was partially fabricated, and has since dedicated an entire program to detailing the errors Daisey's story about visiting Foxconn. You can listen to TAL's program Retraction to learn more.